


the colors of the wind

by ablazefairy



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Clueless Baekhyun, First Time, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Nymph Byun Baekhyun, Prince Park Chanyeol, Whipped Park Chanyeol
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-16 07:53:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28578555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ablazefairy/pseuds/ablazefairy
Summary: Nymph Baekhyun lives among a field of baby's breath hidden in the forest- he doesn't really know much else of life, and his mother tells him that humans are dangerous.So how should he act when a runaway human prince comes to rest in his field?
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun/Park Chanyeol
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	the colors of the wind

Baby's breath 

_ purity, sincerity, everlasting love, innocence, trust. _

  
  


The first time he heard it, Baekhyun didn’t give it much thought. It was just a little trot-trot, which passed as soon as it came.

_ ‘’Somewhere in the mountains, you can hear the calling. _

_ Many fires are burning, on their naked bodies...’’ _

  
  


Then, the voice reached the nymph’s ears. It was not one familiar to him, and Baekhyun prided himself in knowing all the murmurs in the forest. This one belonged to a man, and he was slowly approaching Baekhyun's field.  Curious by nature, the nymph’s head shot up from where he was laying among his flowers, just in time to see a young man climbing up the hill. He was so close to his field, but the nymph found his body with no fit reaction for it.

Briefly, while he was busy eyeing the one approaching, his mother’s words came back to him. Baekhyun thought of running, but still, something made him stay even though the boy was now heading straight to his flowers. 

But he didn’t look dangerous. A human- he knew that much, from his strange clothes and his dark hair, impressive height too, but not like the humans his mother had told him about. This one looked out of breath and flushed by the sun shining down on the land. He looked lost.  It was not every day that some boy got lost in Baekhyun’s flower field- mother had always told him that no human should breach the barrier of the forest because of the curse they’d put  it  under- so the nymph kept his head down between his baby’s breath even when the intruder dropped to the ground with a last huffed breath and remained there.

At this, Baekhyun flinched- his flowers should have never been treated that way. He could hear their petals scrunching, calling out to him for help- and yet, he stood still, holding his breath.

This was one strange human. There wasn’t anything out of the ordinary about him, but  he  still put Baekhyun in a trance. The nymph had never seen a human before. The only ones  who had  stepped inside his field were his mother and Sehun, the cervitaur that befriended him after Baekhyun caught him trying to munch on his flowers one day. While his mother had crystal blue eyes and hair of fire, this boy’s eyes were shining brightly in the dark- Baekhyun concluded from his hiding spot. His own hair was the colour of his mother’s hyacinths flowers, but the human only had black to cover his head. Did the human’s mother tell him that he was beautiful every night as a child as Baekhyun’s did? If so, who was the beautiful one? Did all humans look the same? Why were their legs so long? Why did Baekhyun have pink hyacinth hair and the human-

_ ‘’No, stop!’’ _

His body froze. 

It was too late when Baekhyun realized that he had sprinted out of his hiding spot. He had reacted without thinking when the human tried to grab one of his flowers. It was still a baby, its petals blooming in full colours still. Now, petrified with fear in front of the human’s own scared eyes, he regretted being so in thought that he never realized when to stop.  Humans were bad- that was what his mother taught him. What was he supposed to do now in front of this human?

The human’s eyes took the form of Sehun’s ones when Baekhyun  showed  him how he could make flowers bloom for the first time. ‘’Who...who are you?’’ The boy asked, hand dropping from the baby flower he was previously intending to kill.  Baekhyun could still run away now, the human would never find him in the forest- the forest would never let him pass. But he didn’t, couldn’t. They both stood in front of each other, with the same curious eyes. 

‘’Who are  _ you _ ?’’ The nymph accused instead, then he immediately took a step back when the human rose to full height. 

With a look Baekhyun could not decipher in his eyes, the human took a step closer, and a wave of fear shook over the nymph. So he took two steps back. 

‘’I’m... I’m not g-going to hurt you. I am Chanyeol and- I’m lost, I think.’’ The human said, with an added chuckle at the end. Pink was quick to dust his cheeks, and Baekhyun assumed it must be something humans did- his skin never changed colour.

Baekhyun nodded, calmer now. He did not know where the courage came from, but he took the initial steps back towards the human. Now the nymph could see him clearly, and he concluded- his mother must have told him about a different kind of human, because this one did not resemble the monsters  he’d  been taught about. He was just like him.

‘’I am Baekhyun.’’ 

Still holding his red colour, the human- Chanyeol, spoke again, ‘’What are you doing here? Are you lost too?’’ 

Baekhyun  tilted  his head. Where else could he be, if not his flower field? ‘’No, I don’t think so, I’ve been here all my life…’’ 

The human did not seem to get it, but his eyes doubled in size. ‘’You’re not- Baekhyun, who are you?’’

Confused, the nymph’s head tilt remained, and a frown was added to it, ‘’The forest calls me Anthousai, but my mother simply tells me I am Baekhyun.’’ The human’s eyes never faltered from his face. It woke a strange feeling inside Baekhyun. With his eyes downcast, he shifted from one foot to the other, just to have something to do while Chanyeol kept searching for his eyes. The nymph did not understand the reason, but he felt like he could breathe normally again after his action, but not for long- until their eyes met again. 

‘’And- where is your family? Where is your house?’’ A string of stuttered, but curious questions came again. Without thinking, Baekhyun found himself face to face with the strange boy, but he did not back down. Instead, he replied softly, trying to make out the reason for Chanyeol’s questions. 

‘’A house…? This is my home.’’ The nymph explained, throwing a glance around his flower field. ‘’My mother is with her own flowers.’’ 

It seemed impossible, but the human’s round eyes got even bigger, ‘’I don’t understand…’’ 

Instead of answering once again, Baekhyun  shot  his own question, ‘’Why aren’t you in your home?’’ 

The tall boy scratched the back of his head, his eyes going down while a new shade of pink bloomed on his cheeks, ‘’I ran away.’’

Baekhyun nodded, but his eyes betrayed his confusion. Everything about this human was confusing, ‘’But- isn’t that your home? Can you- can you live in other places outside your home?’’ It was unheard of for him- the nymph could never leave his flower field, this was where he had been placed as a baby and this was where he would wilt. 

His questions seemed to be too much for the human, who kept shifting in his place- looking around, coming back to gaze into the nymph’s eyes, then looking around again. Chanyeol could not understand much, it all felt like a dream- one second he was walking around, trying to find a way, and now he was talking to the enchanting creature who had eyes twinkling like small stars in the night and a face so pure that he felt ashamed for even getting the chance to glance at it. It must have been a dream- the boy was sure that if he pinched himself hard enough, he’d wake up back in his bed, between the colourless walls of his cold room. But Chanyeol did not want to. 

‘’-Chanyeol?’’ The sweet voice took him out of his inner turmoil.

‘’My father and I are very different, so I decided to run away.’’

Holding all the understanding in the world- although he did not understand much, Baekhyun nodded, convinced, ‘’Is he a bad person?’’ 

‘’No- no, I just…’’ Chanyeol cut himself off. Was he really on the verge of telling his aspirations to the strange boy he found in the woods minutes prior? 

‘’I can feel your horse’s distress.’’ A serene tone interrupted him once again. This time, Baekhyun was looking past him, in the direction of the hill he had just climbed. 

Chanyeol only choked on air- remembering for a second that there was something else around him besides the boy’s beautiful eyes, and time didn’t actually stop for him. ‘’You can feel it?’’ 

The nymph nodded, perplexed himself, "You can't?" 

Getting  more excited, Chanyeol continued, ignoring the nymph’s question, ‘’What else can you feel?’’

They exchanged a short stare- Chanyeol, a curious one, and Baekhyun, a bashful one. The nymph found their differences very perplexing. Something must be wrong with him, for thinking  that  everyone was like him all his life. "Nature.  The  energy...everything around me. You really can't feel it?" 

Chanyeol scratched his head, "I can only feel the smell of green right now. And-" but he cut himself off. A healthy blush crept up his neck, "Your smell, you smell like flowers."

Baekhyun only blinked twice. It was then when he noticed that the human didn't have a specific scent. Strange, these humans. 

Chanyeol shook himself out of his serene state. With Baekhyun next to him, he noticed that he had the tendency to forget his surroundings. The boy was enchanting. "My horse... I left it down the hill because I wasn't sure  I'd  find shelter in here. I should probably g-go get him." The boy stumbled over some words, only because Baekhyun's eyes weren’t even blinking when on him.

Chanyeol promised to come back, and Baekhyun found himself waiting, without a reason to. He just couldn’t let go of him yet. Something inside him told the nymph that it should have not been the last time they saw each other.  So Chanyeol came back. Faster in his climbing than the first time, because now he had a very puzzling, but beautiful reason to return  to . 

And, somehow, they ended up next to each other again, hidden between the white flowers. Chanyeol’s heart was playing tricks on him- one second it was calm, peaceful, harmony  surrounding  him as if he landed in the fairytale of his dreams, then a storm  would  take over again. It was the boy’s doing, but he loved the chaos as much as he loved the calm.

‘’Chanyeol, are you not going back to your home?’’ Baekhyun shyly began, blinking up at the human with anticipation. ‘’My mother says that this is my home, but you could live here with me if you have nowhere to go…’’

‘’I don’t think I will. My father doesn’t understand me…’’ The taller sighed, dropping his shoulders in defeat.

Baekhyun’s eyes perked up, and his hand ended up on the human’s knee, without thinking. His mother told him to never get close to a human. ‘’You are sad.’’

At that, Chanyeol’s ears reddened, ‘’You can feel that too?’’ He asked, embarrassed, but the nymph continued, ‘’ Of course, we are part of nature. Everything is connected. I just didn’t know I could sense humans as well.’’ He sounded happy about it. 

‘’Why are you sad?’’ Again, so gentle, so unlike anything Chanyeol had experienced inside the castle, so like home. The prince could not help but confess everything. 

‘’I am a prince.’’ 

Baekhyun let out an understanding ‘’ooooh!’’, but his head  was  still tilted, ‘’What does a prince do?’’

Said prince seemed to have a hard time coming up with an answer. It was a ridiculous question- no one  had  asked him what a prince did before. ‘’My older brother is preparing to become  the  king… he trains and follows my father a lot.’’ A short pause where he checked Baekhyun’s face- he was still as beautiful, still as curious. ‘’I never do anything, but I wanted to become a forest ranger or a wandering knight…’’ 

The nymph bobbed his head frantically, waiting for more. ‘’And, did you? What’s better, a forest ranger or a knight? Can everyone become a- what does a knight do?’’

Baekhyun’s enthusiasm rippled a laugh out of the human, ‘’They protect and fight for their kingdom! But I did not. My father wanted me to become a diplomat, so I’d stay close to my family…’’ And, just like that, the crinkle in his eyes faded again, ‘’That’s why I decided to run away.’’ 

The nymph’s hand found itself back on Chanyeol’s knee, ‘’You don’t need to be sad! We can share my field, I am sure mother won’t mind. She will see that you are not a bad human!’’ The smaller exclaimed, convinced, and he managed to calm the human again. Chanyeol laughed along,  first  at Baekhyun’s silly behaviour, then at the whole situation.

‘’Why are humans bad?’’ The prince asked, when their giggles  had  stopped. 

Baekhyun considered it a little. ‘’I don’t know, my mother says they are. She says that they are evil and would only hurt us if they knew about us. But… you are not an evil human, are you?’’ He tilted his head like a curious puppy, and blinked, trying to figure out Chanyeol’s entire being.

‘’No, I don’t think I am? Who would want to hurt you?’’ The prince asked, outraged at the story. If all of...Anthousais were like Baekhyun, he was sure that no human would dare to lay a finger on  them . All Chanyeol wanted to do was stare at the boy, never break the trance the creature put him under.

A small silence settled over them, interrupted by a breathy giggle coming from the nymph.

‘’What happened?’’ The human asked.

Baekhyun shrugged, ‘’I am happy because I made a human friend!’’ 

Chanyeol hummed. Out of his control, the corner of his mouth twitched when the smaller began caressing the petals of a flower next to his head.

_ ‘’What happened?’’  _ Baekhyun mimicked with the same happy twinkle in his eyes.

‘’Nothing, you are just beautiful.’’ The taller blurted out, realizing his words in shame only after. But it was the truth- nothing he had seen so far could compare to Baekhyun’s radiance. And his mind was full of it, there was nothing else he could say at that moment. ‘’Excuse me,’’ Chanyeol cleared his throat, face changing colour, ‘’I don’t know what came over me.’’

The nymph could not understand the strange happenings on the human’s face, but deep inside, he felt like the colour red. Something was bubbling inside him, and he had to avert his eyes for it to pass. But it did not.

The moment passed slowly, and the both of them found each other curiously staring again. Green met black, and they didn’t part for long after. 

‘’I brought some food with me, do you want to try? The palace cook is very good!’’ Chanyeol said, standing up in no time and going to his horse. But when he turned around, his steps slowed down, turning careful at the flinch Baekhyun gave him. ‘’I am sorry about the flowers, I did not notice…’’ A short thoughtful pause, ‘’Can you feel them?’’ 

The nymph was sugar and honey no matter what. He answered with the same sweet smile, ‘’Of course! They are my flowers, I raised them!’’ He announced proudly, then a  typical-Baekhyun  head tilt followed, ‘’Food?’’ 

Chanyeol should have prepared himself with more understanding the moment he realized that this boy in the woods was not someone he met every day, but he could not hide his amazement at how clueless he was, ‘’You don’t eat?’’ 

The smaller shrugged, ‘’I don’t think I do... I never tried?’’

They were just exchanging confused glances at this point, but Chanyeol continued, ‘’How do you feed yourself then?’’ 

Baekhyun raised his arm to gesture at his surroundings, going from the bright blue sky to the forest opening in the back, ‘’Mother nature keeps me alive, my mother never talks about food.’’ 

Chanyeol was at loss of words, ‘’That is… you have to try this! Can you eat normal food?’’ He asked, excited, already preparing to give Baekhyun the first spoon of his meal. 

The nymph scrunched his nose, ‘’This is not normal food to me, Chanyeol…’’  But he still tried a bite. Baekhyun found himself face to face with a spoon full of long bits of something that looked like a white seed, but, to his surprise, it was soft. And it had a peculiar taste too. The nymph eyes widened at the foreign feeling in his mouth, and he munched silently, swallowing by instinct. 

The prince watched, amused at the way the smaller’s cheeks doubled in size- he was lovely even with his mouth full. ‘’Do you like it?’’

Baekhyun pondered a little, then he nodded with his cheeks aching, not used to the feeling, ‘’It is strange, but it doesn’t feel bad.’’ 

They shared the rest of the meal at loss of words, because there was no need when Baekhyun pleased humming filled the silence. The nymph thought that his mother would have been very disappointed in him if she were to find out he took something from a stranger- one that happened to be a human. But Chanyeol was his new friend. He told the smaller he won’t hurt him, and, because of some reason Baekhyun couldn’t understand, his senses were telling him that he really would not.

‘’Do you eat every day at your home?’’ Baekhyun asked, already making up plenty of other tastes Chanyeol must have tried.

‘’Yes, I did, but now…’’ He cut himself off, because the prince did not know if he would get to taste something as good as his cook’s dishes. The realization was only settling in now. He ran on a whim, after another argument with his father, and the adrenaline lasted all the way to this hill. Chanyeol sighed, thinking.

‘’Chanyeol,’’ Baekhyun called in his mellow voice, as if he was talking to one of his flowers, ‘’there is no need to be sad, I can ask my mother about food, she must know more!’’ 

The prince chuckled endearingly, forgetting his worries for the moment. This creature- no, this boy barely knew anything about his world and yet there he was, offering to help him with the sincerest eyes. His insides warmed up at the thought. Baekhyun was a professional when it came to calming and disturbing him at the same time.

‘’Baekhyun, how old are you?’’ 

The nymph shrugged as a response, ‘’How old are you?’’ 

Chanyeol blinked at the question, did Baekhyun not know his own age? ‘’I am 18.’’ He answered confidently.

The smaller’s lips curled up in a smile, ‘’I must be older than you, but not with much, I really can’t remember the day I bloomed…’’ 

The taller round eyes followed him closely, waiting for an explanation for the strange use of words, ‘’Bloomed? You were not born?’’ 

Baekhyun went on with explaining like it was the easiest thing in the world. And maybe it was, for him, ‘’The rain helped me bloom in my mother’s hyacinth field… I think it has been 22 springs since then?’’ 

This time, Chanyeol couldn’t help his gasp, ‘’Can you age?’’ He questioned, excited. Everything was becoming more like a fairytale, he was almost convinced that he must still be sleeping. 

Baekhyun took longer to answer this question. That was the one thing his mother had told him to never tell, and he was afraid to, even if Chanyeol was his new friend. Baekhyun’s life was linked to his flower field, and he has been taught to never let it wilt if he wanted to stay young like he was now.

‘’Yes...’’ He said, not sounding so sure, which earned a raised eyebrow from the taller, but then he nodded.

‘’You are fascinating…’’ Chanyeol’s mouth went ahead of himself again, and he muttered, not even once tearing his eyes off the beautiful creature. 

The nymph was greeted by the same feeling he could not pinpoint, it felt unsettling but in a way he’d never felt before. Baekhyun could swear he was matching the human’s pink flush. 

‘’I don’t believe so.’’ The smaller said, with a strong urge to shrug in on himself at the attention, but he just raised his shoulders. Truth was, Baekhyun had his own curiosities about the strange human, but the way Chanyeol made everything seem so simple left him with no further questions. 

‘’Hey, Chanyeol!’’ The nymph exclaimed, when the thought came back to him, ‘’What about your mother, is she a good human too?’’ 

The prince chuckled, hardly holding himself back from ruffling Baekhyun’s hair. He had never been this bold before, but there was something about the boy that made him feel like nothing could go wrong when it was just the two of them like this. ‘’She left when I was younger, father never talks about her, so I don’t know much…’’

Baekhyun’s eyelashes fluttered in wonder, ‘’Fathers don’t sound good, I am glad I had my mother.’’ Then his eyes lit up again, ‘’Maybe you could meet mother, if she comes to visit tonight!’’ 

The prince nodded, although he was not sure if he wanted to meet more of the forest’s creatures. With Baekhyun it came naturally, but could he accept something so different, something that was not real for him until one hour ago?

‘’Can you leave this field?’’ Came a genuine question, because Baekhyun kept talking about his flowers like they were his own life. 

Baekhyun nodded, but then he thought better and shook his head, and it all ended up in him shrugging, ‘’Not for long, I sometimes go into the forest or to visit my mother, but I feel the best when I am among my flowers.’’ The smaller explained.

The prince pouted, thinking about how monotonous Baekhyun’s life must be. ‘’And what do you do all day? Don’t you get lonely in here?’’

Baekhyun started with a peaceful smile, reminiscing, his head fell back even more, to gaze at the clear sky, ‘’I know morning comes when the birds start their song, and I wait for them to pass over my field, sometimes I sit with the fairies, I have a unicorn friend that comes to meet me sometimes- how does lonely feel?’’ The smaller stopped his rambling to question.

The question kept Chanyeol silent. It should have come as a surprise that fairies and unicorns were real, but now, it was easy to believe, with Baekhyun in front of him. Plus, how could he describe lonely, if he only felt it? Everyone that felt it knew what he was talking about. Was there a word to fully describe lonely? 

He cleared his throat, ‘’It’s… I don’t know, it’s something that makes you sad.’’ Chanyeol tried to explain, but by the confusion in the smaller’s eyes, he was not very successful. ‘’It does not matter, I am glad you’ve never been lonely.’’ 

Baekhyun approached this like anything else the human told him, with a child-like amazement, ‘’Maybe one day I will feel ‘’lonely’’.’’

Chanyeol shook his head harder this time, opposed at the idea of this pure boy feeling any miserable feeling, ‘’No, I hope you won’t.’’ 

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!!! This was my prompt for monsterfest but! sadly! I dropped out. I have like 5k written for this, but I still wanted to post it because it'd be forgotten forever if it continued to stay in my drafts. 
> 
> That being said, thank you for reaching this and reading even though I am not sure I'll finish this fic this year, or the next??? Sorry for wasting your time I guess. Thanks!!!!


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